Numerous types of bicycle brake mechanisms are known in the art, including drum brakes, cantilever brakes, disk brakes, caliper brakes and linear-pull brakes. One common feature of these brake mechanisms is that the braking force is a function of the force applied to a brake cable extending between the brake mechanism and a hand lever assembly (FIG. 9); a corresponding condition exists for hydraulic brakes. Various mechanisms have been incorporated in braking systems to increase the braking force during lever actuation, providing the rider with increasing braking power or mechanical advantage for slowing the bicycle. The present invention is an improvement to hand-operated braking systems, especially those exhibiting increasing mechanical advantage.
Typically, a hand-operated hand lever assembly consists of a brake handle including a finger grip bar and a cable pulling arm. The hand lever is attached to the bicycle handlebar by a mounting bracket for pivotal movement relative to the mounting bracket about a fixed axis. The brake cable is attached to the cable pulling arm a select distance from the fixed axis. As the finger grip bar is squeezed by a rider of e.g. a two-wheeled vehicle (such as a bicycle or motorcycle), the cable pulling arm pivots, increasing the tension on the brake cable, thereby actuating the brake mechanism. Once the brake mechanism is adjusted, the braking force is a function of how hard the finger grip bar is squeezed. How hard the finger grip must be squeezed and how far it must travel to provide a given braking force is known as the "feel" of the brakes.
Bicyclists, particularly avid bicyclists, each have a preferred feel for their bicycle brakes. Riders tend to anticipate the braking force that will result based upon the feel of their brakes. This feel is particularly important in high performance bicycling, such as off-road mountain biking, where too much braking force under certain conditions can cause the wheels to lock, resulting in a potentially dangerous loss of rider control. Likewise, too little braking force can have disastrous consequences. Thus, not only is a particular brake feel a matter of user preference, in performance situations a consistent feel contributes to rider safety. To complicate matters, as brake pads wear, the feel of the brakes can vary, particularly during off-road biking where dirt and grit increase brake pad wear and where brakes must be used often and aggressively.
With conventional hand lever assemblies, in order for a bicyclist to obtain a desired feel for the brakes, the brake mechanism itself must be adjusted. This is a time consuming and difficult process requiring special tools. Adjustments are particularly difficult under field conditions where a bicyclist either does not have the necessary tools or does not want to take the time to adjust the brake mechanism.
An alternative to adjustment of the brake mechanism to alter the brake feel known in the art, is providing a structure in the hand lever for varying the perpendicular distance between the fixed axis and the brake cable. This distance is known as the pivot arm. Known prior art devices provide a plurality of holes along the length of the hand lever at various distances from the fixed axis. While this structure does provide for coarse adjustment of the brake feel, the adjustment is only between pre-selected distances between the fixed axis and the point of attachment of the brake cable. Thus, only a limited number of pivot arm distances, and therefore brake feels, are available. In addition, while this structure does not require disassembly of the brake mechanism to adjust the brake feel, it does require disassembly of the hand lever assembly to reposition the point of attachment of the brake cable to the hand lever. Thus, adjustment of the brake feel with this structure is time consuming and requires tools which might not be available under field conditions.
Another device employs a slotted hand lever whereby the point of attachment of the brake cable is allowed to transition between varying distances with respect to the fixed axis. Although the noted device provides a varying brake feel and more braking power, one embodiment of the device also suffers from a significant drawback in that there is an abrupt transition of the mechanical advantage and hence, the force applied to the brake cable. The mechanical advantage is inversely proportional to the pivot arm. The smaller the pivot arm, the greater the power or braking force applied to the brake cable. Therefore, it is crucial that the increase in mechanical advantage be smoothly varying and therefore predictable.
Other devices achieve a mechanical advantage increase over the lever rotational range even with fixed cable attachment points, thereby eliminating complex slotted mechanisms while still providing increasing braking power. The brake mechanisms described above, however, all have in common a single axis design feature. The hand lever is pivotally attached to the mounting bracket and as the hand lever is drawn toward the handlebar, the lever sweeps within a single plane of motion. This type of design has several ergonomic drawbacks. In such conventional hand lever designs the rider's hand is forced to slide across the front surface of the finger grip bar and/or the knuckles are pinched upwards as the lever is drawn closer to the handlebar. This configuration not only results in uncomfortable rubbing and chafing of the rider's hand across the finger grip but also weakens the gripping power as the rider's hand is pinched upwards away from the handlebar. Providing a hand lever that simply rotates about a its longitudinal axis alone does not eliminate these drawbacks. Even so configured, the angle that the hand lever forms with respect to the handlebar is typically quite large to provide sufficient lever travel and the rider's hand is positioned further away from the pivot axis to provide the desired braking power. Such a configuration places the lever too far away from the rider's hand, especially for riders with smaller hands, and positions the weaker fingers at the maximum power region on the finger grip away from the pivot axis and the strongest fingers closer in where they are less effective in producing powerful braking.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a hand lever assembly that provides a comfortable hand lever that is easy to reach and that rotates about a second axis to follow the natural arcuate motion of the rider's hand during lever actuation, eliminating friction between the fingers and the finger grip bar while sweeping toward and downward along the handlebar to provide sufficient braking power with desired brake feel. A primary characteristic of the invention is that the arcuate or rotational motion of the provided hand lever is converted into a rectilinear force that boosts the actuating power as the lever is drawn toward the handlebar.